Regulators were wrong to claim that they could not have blocked the calamitous
acquisition of ABN Amro by Royal Bank of Scotland, MPs say today in a
hard-hitting criticism of the Financial Services Authority.

Sir Callum McCarthy and Hector Sants, chairman and chief executive of the FSA
at the time of the deal, come in for the brunt of criticism over their
inaction. John Tiner, Mr Sants’s predecessor, is also indirectly criticised.

The failure to put in place adequate supervision and the failure to subject
the ABN deal to analysis amounted to a “serious indictment” of the FSA
senior management,